How to I get Final Cut log & capture to recognize this Sony HDV deck?

I'm using Final Cut 6.06 with a Sony HVR-1500 deck. I need to use it to digitize Mini DV tapes, and though the Log & Capture window allows me to control the deck remotely (pause, play, rewind, etc), and though it says "VTR OK" underneath, it still says "Preview Disabled" on the screen and whenever I attempt to capture, it says that there is no video. I have all the Audio & Video settings set on DV NTSC and Firewire NTSC.

On the HVR-1500 deck, I have it set to iLink. Is this correct? Is this what is needed? There's a blinking orange light above the letters "IN" rather than HDV or DVCAM, should I have that set above DVCAM instead? How to I switch it over? To be honest I know nothing about what I need to do with the deck to get it to work.

I've got to digitize 40 hours of footage in the next three days. Help!

Assuming you want to capture DV go into FCP and select the DV - NTSC option from the Easy Setup menu. I know you said you think you have everything setup correctly but using the Easy Setup makes sure it's fool proof. Next you need to switch the deck over from HDV to DV. IIRC there are three options someplace that are Auto Detect, HDV and DV (possibly DVCAM). Make sure it's set on DV. Turn off FCP, then with the deck on launch FCP.

On more the one occasion I've had issue w/FCP properly seeing the deck when in "auto" mode so I just always recommend not to use it. It is a pain to switch on the smaller decks if they aren't hooked up to a monitor since they don't have an on-board screen.

When it plays on the deck what format does it show up as (you might have to cycle through the screen's display settings to get the info to show up)? Since you have deck control via FW we can rule out a bad FW cable or some other type of connectivity issue.

For the heck of it try power cycling both the deck and the Mac (but turn the deck on first then boot up the Mac).

Hey LW before I turn everything off, what should I be looking for in the format? I'm assuming you don't mean aspect ratio, do most of these decks list certain formatting specs I should keep my eyes peeled for?

I didn't see any information on the audio when going through the various deck menus - mentions of the 48k, and basic 4:3 aspect ratio. Nothing about bits or 12/16. It didn't like using the Sony Deck device control setting in conjunction with the matching format settings, wouldn't open up Log & Capture. Otherwise, no messages about no communication with the deck. Definitely not using PAL, that would have been embarrassing!

So, an update: after trying more of the tapes, several of them worked perfectly in Log & Capture on Final Cut. Going through the tapes systematically, it turns out that exactly half of the tapes worked, and half didn't. All the tapes that worked have been digitized. Of the remainder, virtually all of them, when sorted, turned out to glob together in perfect numeric order (tapes 1-8, 37-45, etc). One guess another editor made is that whoever filmed all this Mini DV, did so on two separate cameras over a long period of time, and the remainder not working on the Sony deck is due to them being shot progressive instead of interlaced.

What do you guys think? Are there specific Sony decks for progressive footage, and other decks for interlaced? Now that we know that the reason for the problem is because a large number of tapes have some kind of different setting, whatever it may be, what might be the solution to getting them to show up on Log & Capture?

IIRC, DV was always interlaced. You had a "frame" setting on Canon XL. I never had an issue to capture that footage with my HDV700 deck.
We have an older Sony deck that had a lot of trouble capturing the Canon footage.
Only help would to find out what camera the footage was shot with and try to find one (rent, borrow or steal).

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